Fabrication of high aspect ratio broadband antireflection porous nano-network on glass using candle soot as a sacrificial layer for solar energy utilization

In this paper, we report the fabrication of broadband antireflection porous nano-network on the glass substrate using the combination of candle soot and HF-based vapor phase etching method, Candle soot layer plays a key role to control the pore size during the etching process. Field emission electron microscopy results showed that the pores have the tapering profile, and the pores size was restricted to the sub-wavelength dimension, Therefore, an excellent broadband antireflection with an enhancement of similar to 7% in the maximum total transmittance as compared to plain glass has been achieved. Moreover, reflectance from the etched surface remains quite low (<4%) over a broad range of incident angles up to 58 degrees. The broadband antireflection property was further examined by finite difference time domain simulation. Further, we demonstrate a relative improvement of similar to 6% in the J(sc) (Delta J(sc)/J(sc)) of solar cell covered with the etched glass. Published by AIP Publishing.